Squatters ordered to leave Anchor Point homestead

A situation that involved a blocked bridge, an unburied body and alleged criminal activity at an Anchor Point homestead came to a resolution in Homer Court on Monday.

The homestead owners, the Dwight and Debra Glanville family, reached a settlement with an Anchor Point man, Keith Evans, to move from their property. Evans’ father, Bill Evans, died July 3 at the homestead, and his body had been there several days before friends recovered and buried his remains.

“This is a quagmire of civil issues and some criminal stuff that has been reported,” said Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Daniel Cox, head of the Anchor Point Troopers Post. “…Legally, it’s a huge murky thing.”

In the agreement, Keith Evans said that by Aug. 6 he would move his belongings — including a horse and buggy — from the Glanville property near Mile 164 Sterling Highway. Currently, a mound of gravel and a bulldozer block access to a one-lane bridge across the Anchor River to the 24 acres of land and several buildings.

Evans can pack and stage his property by the bridge, and under the agreement the Glanvilles will be able to inspect it and then open up the bridge.

“I intended no harm from the beginning,” Evans said in court.

He had been on the way to court on his horse, but attended telephonically when he couldn’t get there in time.

Attorney Michael Hough represented the Glanvilles. Earlier this month the Glanvilles had started eviction proceedings against Evans, but Hough worked out a deal with Evans and his attorney that avoided eviction. If Judge Margaret Murphy had ordered an eviction, Evans would have had to move out in 10 days.

“It was easier to work with an attorney and agree to a couple of weeks,” Hough said.

Evans came to live on the Glanville property when he moved in to take care of his father, Bill Evans, after the father had a stroke. In a timeline the Glanvilles wrote up, they said that Bill Evans had been given permission to stay on the family property. The older Evans had helped the Glanvilles around the property, including assisting in repairs of the bridge after a flood damaged it.

According to the Glanvilles, over the past three weeks, they noticed a steady stream of vehicles coming and going to the property. They asked Keith Evans to clean up the place. Things got worse after Bill Evans died on July 3 at the home, the Glanvilles wrote. On July 5, they learned that his body was still at the home.

Hough said no one took care of Evans’ remains.

“The body just kept sitting there. Keith didn’t do anything about it,” Hough said.

Unable to locate Keith Evans, Dwight Glanville and some friends built a casket, and on July 8 went to the home and prepared the body for burial. In their narrative, the Glanvilles said Keith Evans called Alaska State Troopers claiming the body had been stolen. The Glanvilles told him the body was at the Anchor Point Cemetery.

Cox said troopers received notice of Bill Evans’ death. He had been under home health care. Troopers had Comfort One paperwork on file, the documents family file when a death is expected. The State Medical Examiner released the body to the family. Cox confirmed Keith Evans called to report his father’s body was missing, but troopers said Bill Evans had been buried and no crime had occurred.

A family who owns a homestead adjoining the Glanvilles, Tonda and Joey Alred, said someone staying at the Glanville property had been coming onto the Alred homestead and ripping copper wiring out of an old cabin for scrap. With the bridge blocked, Tonda Alred said on Wednesday, July 18, people tried to take out a bundle of items wrapped in a blue tarp by driving across the Anchor River, a salmon stream. She said a friend with a drone had taken photos of the car in the stream.

Cox said troopers investigated the vehicle in the river on July 18 and then on July 19, when they found a driver with the car. Troopers cited John Brake, 45, with operating a motor vehicle in an anadromous fish stream.

The Glanvilles also said that people had stolen guns and other property of Bill Evans from the homestead. In court, Hough asked Keith Evans and his friends to help recover missing items.

Tonda Alred said the theft from her homestead and the alleged criminal activity at the Glanville place is part of increased crime in the rural area that runs north of Homer. On June 12, Anchor Point citizens held a meeting at the Anchor Point Senior Center to discuss how to reduce crime.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 31, Naomi Sweetman, a program coordinator with the Alaska Department of Public Safety, will present at the Anchor Point Senior Center about setting up a Neighborhood Watch program.

Alred said she had no idea crime had gotten so bad.

“I’ve been naively going along,” she said in a phone interview last Thursday. “I’m hearing so many stories now from people. It’s mind boggling. They go in, get charges, get charges, it’s dismissed.”

“It’s just upside down. It’s got to stop,” said Joey Alred after the court hearing Monday.

Hough said he will write up a court order outlining the terms of the agreement discussed in court for Judge Murphy’s formal approval. Once that order is signed, Cox said he would have authority to enforce trespassing on anyone other than Evans staying on the Glanville property.

“We’re trying to work with the property owners to get the people who are not supposed to be there off the property,” he said. “… We’re trying to help as much as we can. … I feel sorry for all the parties involved. It’s a huge stress and strain on them.”

Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.

A bulldozer and a pile of gravel block the entrance to a bridge leading to the Glanville homestead on July 23, 2018, near Mile 164 Sterling Highway. Dwight and Diana Glanville filed eviction proceedings against Keith Evans, and in a hearing on July 23, Evans agreed to pack up his possessions no later than Aug. 6, at which time the Glanvilles will open the road so he can leave. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)